User blog:Glflegolas/Human Extinction -- are we approaching the Doomsday?
So, over the last few days, I have been watching many videos, and reading a whole pile of articles, regarding the possibility of human extinction. I have seen a whole pile of theories emerge -- ranging from superhuman AI to irreversible climate change to World War III -- but what I wanted to know is which of these theories do you think will be the most likely to occur? When will humans go extinct? Before 2050 -- better enjoy life now before it's over! 2050-2100 -- you'll (probably) still have time to retire before the end 2100-2200 -- no need to worry about extinction, it most likely won't be your problem 2300-2400 -- many generations of Men remain 2400-2500 -- the planet can support us for a long while yet 2500-3000 -- we'll make it to the next millennium 4000 A.D. or later -- the future is hopeful Never -- we humans are just too darn intelligent If humans go extinct, what will be the cause? Terrorism -- ISIS will corrupt so many Men that they'll suicide-bomb the species to extinction Disease -- antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a virus with multiple hosts, etc. Climate Change -- the temperature of the Earth will rise so much that the ocean will literally boil away The Sun will get too hot -- this will not happen for ~ 1 Billion years though, so don't worry too much Artificial intelligence -- a superintelligent computer could kill all humans in the world A scientific accident -- a micro black hole gets too big for us to control An extraterrestrial calamity -- meteorite impact, gamma ray burst, etc. A zombie apocalypse -- think The Walking Dead What's Glflegolas' take on this? Well, if I suspect that all humans would go extinct, I would get myself a one-way ticket to Middle-Earth :P My most probably scenario for human extinction would be climate change. Governments simply aren't doing enough about it at the moment, and it really has the potential to do some serious and irreversible damage. If enough CO2 is put into the atmosphere, it could turn the planet into Venus, making the oceans evaporate. This would result in lots of water vapour in the atmosphere, trapping more heat, and the cycle continues. On top of that, we're close to the inner edge of the habitable zone, combine that with a Sun that's slowly warming and you have a major problem. AI is also a possibility, although I wouldn't worry too much about it at the moment, because I have a hard time seeing how a human can create a program (and an AI system) that's more intelligent than the programmer -- AI is one of the hardest things to code (just ask Mevans for confirmation). At the moment, computers are no smarter than a human -- it's only because they can think much faster that they are good for modelling (and playing games on). For a while I thought that a disease (such as a more communicable form of Ebola) could cause the end of the human race, but then I did some reasoning; an infection that always killed those it infected would gradually thin itself out as the number of humans dwindled. This would mean that although an infection would be capable of killing billions, there would most likely be a few humans still alive in some random corners of the world. The only way an infection would ever destroy our species is if it's transmittable via a large number of other species. Besides, there's a good chance that some people would survive the infection (even if it had a fatality rate of 99.999%, that would still leave ~46000 people alive, enough to avert extinction). Another theory that I seriously considered was terrorism or a nuclear war, but there would still be isolated pockets of survivors that the terrorists or attacking armies would be unable to reach. On top of that, there would be lots of raw materials to loot out from abandoned cities, combined with the fact that some books and the art of writing would likely survive. This would make rebuilding civilization a lot easier than building it up in the first place. If the Sun gets too hot, it might mean the end of Earth. However, by using an asteroid, it would be possible to gradually move the Earth to a safer distance from the Sun and assure its existance for a number of years to come. Besides, if Earth becomes too hot, Mars might just become more habitable than it is today. What are your theories on this? Let me know in the comments. I myself voted for 2100-2200 A.D. and for climate change. Category:Blog posts